Van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching power on 20th century art for its vivid colors and emotional impact. He suffer from anxiety and ever more frequent bouts of mental illness throughout his life and died, largely unknown, at the age of 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In January 1879, he took a temporary post as a missionary in the village of Petit wasmes in the coal-mining district of Borinage in Belgium. Taking Christianity to what he saw as its logical end, Van Gogh opted to live like those he preached to - sharing their hardships to the amount of sleeping on straw in a small hut at the back of the baker's house where he was billeted. The baker's wife was reported hearing Van Gogh sobbing all night in the hut. His option of squalid living conditions did not endear him to the appalled church authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood." He then walked to Brussels, returned temporarily to the village of Cuesmes in the Borinage but gave in to pressure from his parents to return house to Etten. He stayed there until around March the following year, a cause of rising concern and frustration for his parents. There was exact conflict between Vincent and his father; Theodorus made inquiries about having his son committed to the lunatic asylum at Geel.